Chris Bambery – In Spain Democracy has become a major Crime

We have pointed out that the trial against 12 Catalan leaders for “Rebellion” has become a political show-trial. Chris Bambery was so kind to write a report of the trial proceedings from the past week to provide readers with a feel for the type of witnesses, their testimonies, and arguments being used by the state of Spain to convict the twelve.

Chris Bambery is author and broadcaster. Co-author (with George Kerevan) of Catalonia Reborn: How Catalonia Took on the Corrupt Spanish State and the Legacy of Franco (Luath Press, June 2018)

BRAVE NEW EUROPE is probably the independent international media that has covered the Catalan Independence movement the most. It has provided the Catalan cause a platform to communicate with the rest of Europe, as well as posted many original articles on the topic. If this is the sort of media you wish to read and support, then please donate here.

The fourth week of the trial at the Spanish Supreme Court of 12 Catalan leaders charged with rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds in association with events in and around the 1 October 2017 Catalan independence, centred on evidence from representatives of the Spanish state apparatus trying to persuade the court that the 12 were responsible for inciting violence.

Proving that is central to making the charge of rebellion stick, though it may be that the prosecution succeeds in their argument that by holding protests and a democratic vote the accused Catalans were therefore responsible for the subsequent police violence.

The former Spanish Secretary of State for Security, José Antonio Nieto, lasted four hours, the longest appearance by a witness yet. On a number of occasions he admitted the Spanish Civil Guard and National Police used force but argued this was to comply with their legal orders following the Spanish Constitutional Court banning the referendum after it found it illegal. The Catalan Parliament had voted to hold the referendum and to continue with it in the face of the ban. But Nieto argued that the police did not carry out baton charges which are permitted when police are trying to end a protest or clear a space and that their actions on the 1st October 2017 fell into that category.

Instead, he argued force had to be used because the police were under threat and some of their colleagues were isolated or surrounded, blaming the Catalan Police, the Mossos, former Catalan Interior Minister, Quim Forn (one of the accused) and the grass roots Committees for Defence of the Republic for what occurred (the CDP’s only came into existence in the aftermath of the referendum). Nieto insisted police actions were correct and denied resistance to police entering polling stations was peaceful, at any time.

Yet under questioning from the defence, Nieto admitted that “dozens” of officers were under investigation for police violence during the referendum.

The then head of the head of Spain’s National Police in Catalonia, Sebastián Trapote, said the protesters outside the polling stations “blockaded our way, made human chains, they attacked us and pushed us.”

He admitted “there were some vulnerable people” present, but claimed Spanish officers had to retreat “due to the violence” of voters.

He had begun his testimony by stating that Spanish prosecutors told officials to take appropriate steps to stop the referendum, and to “aid” the Catalan police, but also to have “the necessary units” in case they had to act on their own.

On the morning of 1 October Trapote had spoken to the coordinator of the operation (Diego Pérez de los Cobos), who, after consulting with José Antonio Nieto), told Trapote to enforce “plan B.” this meant Spanish police replacing the Mossos in the attempt to stop voting. This was because the prosecutors did not regard the Mossos plan for halting voting as being “valid.”

“There comes a point where guaranteeing the collective safety is impossible and a minimum amount of force has to be deployed”

But Trapote insisted Spanish police respected the safety of the public and that at one Barcelona school being used for voting, “police gave up the operation” on the grounds that “it could cause serious injury to both officers and the public.”

He then added: “We wanted to guarantee the collective safety, but there comes a point where this is impossible and a minimum amount of force has to be deployed.”

The man in charge of the Spanish police operation that day was the fore-mentioned Diego Pérez de los Cobos, a Colonel in the Civil Guard, who has been linked with the far right and was a supporter of the failed coup in 1981 which tried to end the new Spanish democracy.

He told the court that the chief of the Mossos ‘s plan for 1 October “would not prevent” voting and that subsequently Spanish police officers acted with “exquisite proportionality” when using force to stop the referendum.

Pérez de los Cobos went onto claim, “By no means were [referendum] voters the target of the police operation,” said Pérez de los Cobos, who was in charge of coordinating the police operation to stop the independence referendum,” describing the “hostility and aggressiveness” of voters

He called the operation “meticulous, professional, and proportional.”

Earlier in the same day, Spanish official Juan Antonio Puigserver told the court that he recalled Pérez de los Cobos saying “public coexistence can’t be an excuse for not using force and complying with court orders.”

The representative of the Spanish Government in Catalonia in October 2017 Enric Millo told the court that “police responded “proportionally.” He claimed police came under bombardment of missiles and that some had fallen into the “Fairy trap.” This he said was the use of Fairy liquid on the ground to ensure officers slipped and fell. Subsequently this allegation and the sarcastic response has gone viral on social media/

He went on to say police ended up pulling back as the security of people and agents was “at serious risk.”

The testimony of two Catalan hoteliers whose premises were used to house Spanish police officers ahead of the October 1, 2017 referendum also testified.

Alberto Fraile, who runs Hotel Gaudí, in Reus in the south of Catalonia), said that there were “some demonstrations” outside his hotel, in which people insulted Spanish police officers staying there.

He denied being put under pressured to refuse rooms for Spanish police.

Sergi Travé, the administrator of Hotel Travé, in Figueres in the north of Catalonia, confirmed he had hosted Spanish police and that he had witnessed two demonstrations against the police officers, “peaceful ones”, and that his hotel had received several phone calls urging him to evict the Spanish police officers: “Insults, threats, and they warned us of boycotts if they didn’t leave,” he said.

The then Catalan government says seven people were seriously injured on 1 October, including one man who lost an eye due to a rubber bullet fired by police.

Parliamentarians from across Europe who acted as observers of the poll were clear that the violence came from the Spanish police and that the protests outside the polling stations were non-violent.

BRAVE NEW EUROPE is probably the independent international media that has covered the Catalan Independence movement the most. It has provided the Catalan cause a platform to communicate with the rest of Europe, as well as posted many original articles on the topic. If this is the sort of media you wish to read and support, then please donate here.

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